Prime suspect of Anne Frank betrayal identified after decades

A cold case investigation led by an ex-FBI agent has identified a Jewish notary as the prime suspect in the mystery of who betrayed teenage diarist Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis, a new book claims.

Arnold van den Bergh may have revealed the Franks’ hiding place in Amsterdam in order to save his own family, according to a six-year probe detailed in “The Betrayal of Anne Frank” by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, which is published on Tuesday.

The case against Van den Bergh, who died in 1950, is supported by evidence including an anonymous note sent to Anne’s father Otto after World War II naming him as the betrayer, according to elements published in Dutch media Monday.

The Anne Frank House museum told AFP that the results of the probe, led by retired Federal Bureau of Investigation detective Vincent Pankoke, were a “fascinating hypothesis” but needed further investigation. Theories have long swirled about the Nazi raid on August 4, 1944, that uncovered the secret annexe where Anne and her family hid from the Holocaust for two years.

Van den Bergh’s name had previously received little attention, but came to the fore during the investigation using modern techniques including artificial intelligence to sort through huge amounts of data.

It narrowed the list of suspects to four, including Van den Bergh, who was a founding member of the Jewish Council, an administrative body the Nazis forced Jews to establish to organise deportations.